The essay starts from Milner's wish to be intensely private, ‘illegible’, and poses the question as to how such a subject may be ‘found’ by a biographer, considering aspects of the search for Milner such as parallel process in the work; ethical dilemmas of confidentiality in writing about a psychoanalyst and the effects on the transference for patients reading about their analyst. Finding Milner involved not only the usual biographic tools (interviews with colleagues and descendants, attention to her books, her habits with documents and texts, her images and objects) but also a kind of unconscious knowing of which certain aspects are discussed. The process also had certain effects on the author's clinical practice. As biographic companion Milner brings with her the ‘riches of world culture’. The author suggests that there is further fruitful work to be undertaken on the subject of biography and psychoanalysis.